Healing Waters

Praise for
Healing Waters

“The authors use a mix of humor and grace to tell a meaningful story that many readers will be able to relate to in their own struggles with size and image.”

—Library Journal

“Evangelical Christian writing duo Rue and Arterburn collaborate again in this follow-up to
Healing Stones,
the first of many (one hopes) Sullivan Crisp Novels . . . This well-written tale will move and engage readers in its volatile mix of questionable religious healing claims and the real deal—inner restoration of the soul.”

—Publishers Weekly

“
Healing Waters
washes over you, leaving you gasping for air . . . an intriguing must-read.”

—CBA Retailers+Resources

“The characterization is so complete and compelling, it's hard to believe any reader can close the cover unchanged . . . Anyone who's ever questioned their faith because life seemed to reward the wicked and smash the faithful needs to read
Healing Waters
and recalibrate their beliefs about God's character.”

—Titletrakk.com

“The second book featuring quirky psychologist Sullivan Crisp is as stunning as the first. The shocking, gripping story, coupled with realistically broken characters, adds up to another triumph. The clear spiritual message about God's love despite our weakness is stellar.”

—Romantic Times

HEALING WATERS

Nancy Rue
and
Stephen Arterburn

© 2008 by Nancy Rue and Stephen Arterburn

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published in association with Alive Communications, 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO, 80920,
www.alivecommunicaitons.com.

Page design by Mandi Cofer.

Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

Publisher's Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rue, Nancy N.
  Healing waters / Nancy Rue & Stephen Arterburn.
    p. cm. — (Sullivan Crisp ; 2)
  ISBN 978-1-59554-431-5 (trade pbk.)
  1. Sisters—Fiction. 2. Eating disorders—Fiction. 3. Aircraft accidents—Fiction. 4. Counselors—Fiction. I. Arterburn, Stephen, 1953– II. Title.
  PS3568.U3595H433 2008
  813'.6—dc22

                                                              2008042008

Printed in the United States of America
09 10 11 12 13 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5

S
ometimes a work of fiction is so achingly real it reads more like a conversation with a close friend than a story.
Healing Waters
is one of those books. We chose it as Women of Faith's 2009 Novel of the Year precisely for that reason.

The main character is like many of us, our friends, and the women who join us every year at Women of Faith events. Lucia is concerned about her weight and her marriage. She has unresolved issues with her family. Her relationship with God is shaky. And she's desperately trying to keep it all together so she can take care of everyone else.

Sound familiar?

Here's the beauty of
Healing Waters:
Lucia starts where many of us live. But she doesn't stay there. Through a series of events—some shocking, some beautiful—Lucia grows into a much healthier woman. Not a perfect woman, by any means, but one who is definitely farther along the road to recovery. She does this with the help of a counselor named Sullivan Crisp, a man who has to do some healing of his own.

Stephen Arterburn and Nancy Rue have crafted a wonderful book that uses a fictional story to address very real issues. If you're like me, you'll be so engrossed in the lives of Lucia and her family you may not realize at first all you're learning about relationships, about faith . . . possibly even about yourself.

For every woman struggling with self worth, here's
Healing Waters.
I think you'll find the water is just fine.

In His Love for You,
Mary Graham

For the brave and honest participants of Lose It For Life,
who have made healing their choice.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

CHAPTER FORTY

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

CHAPTER ONE

I
had done everything on my list. Everything but the last item.

Neat black checks marked the first five to-dos:

paint bathroom

put last layer on torte

redo makeup

call modeling agency—say NO